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Trump budget slashes EPA funding, climate change research

President Trump waves as he arrives during the State of the Union address.Win McNamee | Getty Images file

Climate change research is on the Environmental Protection Agency's chopping block.

President Trump's proposed 2019 budget calls for slashing funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by more than one third, including ending the Climate Change Research and Partnership Programs.

The president's budget would also make deep cuts to funding for cleaning up the nation's most polluted sites, even as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says that's one of his top priorities. Trump's budget would allocate just $762 million for the Hazardous Substance Superfund Account, a reduction of more than 30 percent.

Current spending for Superfund is down to about half of what it was in the 1990s. Despite the cut, the White House says the administration plans to "accelerate" site cleanups by bringing "more private funding to the table for redevelopment."